Conventional thin keyboard technologies that omit mechanically moveable keys fail to provide satisfactory typing efficiencies and user experience. Common touch-sensitive keyboards utilize a number of electrodes oriented in the form of a grid. Typically, a first layer of parallel electrodes is driven with a constant electrical charge, while a second layer of parallel electrodes, oriented perpendicular to the first layer, is configured to receive a portion of the electrical charge. When a conductor (e.g. a user's finger) approaches the keyboard, the electrical field created between the layers of electrodes is affected, thereby causing a change in the amount of electrical charge received by the second layer. Known touch-sensitive keyboards determine the location at which the conductor contacts the keyboard (e.g., a touch point) as a result of the change in the amount of electrical charge, and interprets the press of a corresponding key based on the determined location.
While known touch-sensitive keyboards are capable of determining such touch point information, current keyboard designs are not capable of measuring additional parameters, such as a pressure applied to the keyboard by the conductor, without the use of additional sensing technology. A user who is typing on a conventional touch-sensitive keyboard often rests his or her hand on a portion of the keyboard, which causes an unintentional input to be received by the conventional touch-sensitive keyboard. In order to distinguish between an intentional key press by the user, and unintentional contact between the keyboard and the user's hand, current keyboards utilizing resistive-type touch technology may employ a layer of force-sensitive resistors (FSRs) to measure user interaction with the keyboard at various locations. Unfortunately, however, current keyboards utilizing resistive-type touch technology, FSRs, are unable to represent “pressure” information to distinguish between an intentional key press by the user, and unintentional contact between the keyboard and the user's hand. Moreover, FSRs are relatively expensive components, and the use of such FSRs can significantly increase the overall cost of the keyboard. It can also be difficult to manufacture current touch-sensitive keyboards in a way that enables satisfactory correlation between the location of a particular FSR and a location of one or more corresponding electrodes.